30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



dollars in annual value the destruction of our agricultural crops, 

 our forest and shade trees through the incursions of noxious insects, 

 just in so far there is an imperative reason why they should be 

 safeguarded by every restraint within the power of the people. 

 No argument is needed and no defense is required for the much 

 talked of " restriction of personal liberty " in the destruction of 

 insect-eating birds. We have reached and passed that point. Noth- 

 ing can so irrevocably restrict personal liberty to hunt and shoot 

 as the entire destruction of game, and this very selfish consideration 

 alone is efficient in the execution of the protective laws; and yet it 

 is questionable whether our restrictive measures have been taken 

 in time to be fully effective. 



There is a fundamental principle here upon which the effective- 

 ness of game laws and general protective methods must be es- 

 timated, and it is the sole criterion by which we can be guided. 

 No system of protection can be efficient if under it the native 

 birds or animals are still diminishing from year to year. Such a 

 condition would be of itself proof that we are destroying more than 

 the annual increase and using up both interest and capital ; and it 

 is to my mind an open question whether our present laws have up 

 to this time been effective in this regard. So much they have 

 effected, that the* falling off of the native races is less rapid, but 

 there is an actual annual diminution, even though in some instances 

 small, and progressive diminution spells extinction. I can not under- 

 take to speak of the relative merits of general laws of protection, 

 but incidentally may observe that in my own state the inefficiency 

 of the general protective laws outstanding for some years past has 

 led to later very severe and stringent regulations in virtue of which 

 it has become an offense to destroy any of the native races of birds, 

 with discriminations against an exceedingly small number regarded 

 as reckless in their disregard of agricultural and fishing interests. 

 I refer to this law without any special reference to open and close 

 game seasons. But I would like to say another word regarding 

 the existing system of protective laws in respect to its failing to 

 meet the requirements of adequate bird protection. If we can not 

 through the laws sufficiently reduce the destructive agencies acting 

 upon species which are actually vanishing, particularly a consider- 

 able number of our game species whose fate now hangs in the 

 balance; if we can not instil into the pot-hunter, the resident or 

 citizen foreign to our mode of thought and our high purposes, of 

 the man out of the reach of observation, who thinks to deceive 

 others while indulging himself; if we can not make the executive 

 effect of our laws reach into those remote corners where these 

 native races are propagating, we must turn to. and by the encourage- 

 ment of a proper spirit and sentiment amongst our citizenry, where 

 the law itself can not much help or hinder, encourage, not merely 

 actual respect and regard for these races but active interest in their 

 preservation by the erection and protection of places which arc to 

 be totally exempted from a hunter's privileges. Preserves, reserva- 

 tions, bird sanctuaries, places of refuge where such security can 



